Theme: Life skills
Life skills are building blocks of independence and self-efficacy. They are combinations of different capabilities that in general enable adults to become lifelong learners and to solve problems in order to live an independent life as individuals and participate in a collective life within society. Life skills are closely related to the key challenges adults are faced with in the modern world. This means, for example, taking care of their physical and mental health, actively contributing to their wellbeing, mastering financial matters, and coping with the digital environment. When skills are defined in this way, it becomes clear that competences embrace not only the needs of the individuals but also their knowledge and values.
Better life skills contribute to social and civic engagement, self-efficacy and employability of an individual. And from a wider perspective, they assure coexistence in democratic society, inclusion for all and active citizenship within a multicultural society. Therefore, life skills are indispensable for an individual to act in a specific environment in accordance with the basic principles of democracy and living together in a diverse society. Life skills provide adults with tools to face new challenges and to provide practical and emotional support to those around them. Life skills are useful for the learners themselves, for people and communities around them and for communicating and transmitting experiences among generations.
The current essential needs of the individual are crucial and at the same time the main motivational factor for the combination of life skills that a person may strive to acquire. The accomplishment of the essential needs through life skills provision enables engagement and a positive learning experience, and as well stimulates new educational need. This, in turn, is a long-term benefit, expressed in greater autonomy, engagement and understanding of the challenges, and finally in new educational needs. This also means that the needs of the learners are the focus and starting point of the learning offer.
For more information on the work EAEA has done with its partners on the topic of life skills, please see Life Skills for Europe -project
Main aims of the Grundtvig Award call 2019
- To increase participation in adult learning by applying a life skills approach
- To raise awareness, at a European level, for life skills in adult learning
- To raise awareness of the importance of learner-centred approaches in adult education
- To inspire new life skills with learner-centred approaches in and with adult education.
Why participate?
All participants gain:
- The certificate of attendance
- Appearance in the EAEA Grundtvig Award publication that will be distributed in EAEA’s events and networks
- International visibility in EAEA’s social media channels and EAEA website.
The winners gain:
- Recognition and honour
- The certificate of attendance
- A concrete EAEA Grundtvig award (a piece of art or handicraft ….)
- An invitation to a person of the winning organisations to the EAEA General Assembly 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark (26/27 June 2018) and the EAEA Grundtvig Award Ceremony including travel and accommodation
- Key slot in the EAEA Grundtvig Award publication that will be distributed in EAEA’s events and networks;
- International visibility of the project in EAEA’s social media channels and EAEA website also after the ceremony
- Appearance in EAEA’s press-release after the competition.
How to participate?
Categories:
We will award excellent adult education and learning projects that have worked successfully with Life Skills in two categories:
2. European projects:
- EU + candidate countries need to have a transnational partnership in at least 3 countries.
- All other European countries need to have either a transnational element or have a strong national partnership with a diverse range of stakeholders
2. Projects on national or regional levels:
- We are looking for projects that have a strong national or local partnership with a diverse range of stakeholders and show innovative ways of working with partners and in new cooperations.
Eligibility
Projects can but need not be supported by the European Commission. They can but need not be Erasmus+ projects. The project or the initiative should be up and running for at least a few months and/or be close to completion. We also accept finished projects but they should have ended within two years of the Grundtvig ceremony (i.e. June 2019). It must have evidence of outputs such as a report, website, or any other form of verification.
The project must clearly demonstrate a life skills approach, i.e. combine basic skills training / adult education provision with the needs of the learner. For more information about life skills you can consult the Life Skills for Europe -project.
The applications will be checked against the following criteria:
Innovation: Outstanding creativity and innovation of the idea or development of partnership to significantly benefit those participating in the project (20%)
Transferability: The project and its outcomes should be transferable and/or useful for others (20%)
Quality: Excellence of project presentation in terms of writing, summarising and supporting with pictures. (20%)
Implementation: Effectiveness of the work (how the outcomes have been reached, or show promise of being reached) (20%)
Impact: The project must clearly demonstrate how it aims at making a positive difference to learners’ lives and the lives of their families, friends, colleagues and / or the community and will be inspirational to others who hear or read about it. The presentation of a learner’s story will be seen as a plus. (20%)
What do we expect?
Please fill in the form below with the following information:
- A description of the project:
- The main goals of the project
- Which life skills were developed and how?
- How was the learner-centred approach applied?
- What are the outcomes for the learners?
- What you actually did and how you did it
- Your target group(s)
- Main results
2. Explanation about the impact:
- The impact of the life skills approach
- How you recognised and tracked success
- What you have learned – what would you do again or differently next time.
How to apply?
You may submit a description of your project in one of the following languages: English, French and German. Entries must be received by filling in Application form for Grundtvig Award until Thursday 18th of April 2019 (note the new deadline). It’s possible to send attachments (max file size 20M) with the form or you can send attachments by e-mail. If you have any printed or similar evidence, please send it to:
EAEA
To the attention of Ms Gina Ebner
Mundo-J
Rue de l’Industrie 10
B-1000 Bruxelles
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact silvia.tursi(at)eaea.org.